Workmen's advocate., 1887-02-12
WHAT IS A GRIM E !!
THE RELATION OF LAW TO
 THE PEOPLE
A Chapter on Social Economy ny Il Radical Writer of Ante. Bellum Days Advocating Resist anre to Unjust Laws
 Even by Force.

We print, to-day. an extract from the anonymous work from which we last week quoted views on the land question; trom tune to time we shall present extracts on various social topics.
 Especial attention is invited to the propositions following, as they form the basis of the authors argu- ment for land-nationalization, which will be completed in our next edi- tion under the title Crime and Property,"
 "The first and most obvious re- q irement in a country, is some de- gree of security for Hfr, Hbpyiy and NrowriY. This gives birth to crimi- nal law, the great end of which is to prevent crimes. Now, here we have the whole evidence of history, that law began at the wrong end.
 flaw ought to emanate from ethics, and the very first and most important question to determine ls, "what is crime and "what is not crime?" Instead of 0SceriaiHiHg, what was a crime. and then pro ceeded to enact laws for its punish ment. they made synthesis be- fore making an analysis, and made that synthesis the basis of political enactments, and committed murder, robbery and every other crime un- der the shelter of their legislation. So far as the ScieHcc of politics was concerned, they were in much the same position as those who made astronomy without observation; that is, they were wholly and totally basing on arbitrary assumption. But wrong proceedings in politics are far more serious than wrong proceedings in other departments, inasmuch as man and mans welfare are cOncerned; and the laws ot former times, and to a large extent of the present time, being based on superstition, necessarily produced and continue to produce, effects the most detrimental to society. Even admitting the wajor proposition of the law, that crime ought to bC punished, the minor (this act and that act are crimes) was purely y ar bitrary; it was determined on nc principle of stability, was variable, contradictory, often absurd, and very generally unjust.
 "Thus, at one period, 1t was a crime for a man to be free, as it still is in Russia, and in the Southern States of America this was writ ten in lS5l-ED. At another period, 1t was a crime to have ] slave.
 "At one period, 1t was crime tC go to church; at another, to refrain from going to church.
 "At one period, it was crime tC shoot deer; at another, no crime At one period, it was a crime to bt witch; at another period it was ad mitted that there were no witches.
 "Now, all this diversity, is ex actly similar to the diversity that prevailed in the MySicM NJ acp> be fore Bacon's time. The maio1 principles of investigation were no in dispute; but Bacon, with a grasl of magnificent genius, laid hold O the miH0rS of the sciences, and tolC men that they must first ascertain Mem before they could arrive a knowledge.
 And so it is in low, the exponcn of mems proposition ''what is !, crlme?" requires to be determined upon exactly the same principles a we determine "what is square," or "what Is the orbit of the earth :: Without this determination, mad on principles which are not arbi trary, but scientific, law is despot ism: and TO HlGR ia He W0rld | morally b0Hm to obey H, except a